Observations Of A Step Sibling
by MayMarie
Summary: Casey and Derek take a moment to reflect on the rarely seen side of each other. Lizzie, Edwin, and Marti get to throw their two cents in as well.
1. Casey's POV

Derek Venturi

Derek Venturi

He is the most popular guy in school.

He's got an attitude that screams "I don't care."

He's laid back. Everything about him. His appearance, his attitude, his whole outlook on life.

He always manages to look like he just rolled out of bed, his hair tousled and falling into his eyes. His usual outfit of baggy jeans and a t-shirt just makes him look more laid back and his worn, broken in leather jacket reinforces his cool persona. His plans for the night don't usually fall into place until the last minute, even though the party invitations and date offers come to him weeks before. He does whatever he feels like whenever he feels like doing it.

And everyone loves him for it because he's everything the guys wish they were and everything this girls wish their boyfriends could be.

He's the captain of the hockey team. He leads his team to victory more often than not. Most guys I know of indulge in that fantasy at least once in their life. To actually live it on a regular basis is something they can only dream about.

He has a way of wrapping everyone around his fingers. He can talk his way out of any situation with a teacher just by joking around and they just nod and smile when he slides into class ten minutes late. Something no other student would be able to get away with.

There's not a girl that doesn't want to date him and not a guy who doesn't want to be him. I can see this every time he walks down the hallway. He can't walk down the hallway without a girl's eyes following him. And he's always surrounded by a group of guys, hoping his cool factor will rub off on them.

It's enough to make a step-sister jealous. I'm sure I would be jealous too, if I didn't know the truth.

Derek's "I could care less what everyone thinks of me" attitude is a complete lie. Everything about him is carefully planned and crafted to make it look like everyone else's opinions don't matter when in reality they're the most important thing to him.

I think that if anyone ever saw through his façade, his entire world would crumble.

His cool laid back attitude is nothing but an act. He won't lock himself into any weekend plans just in case something better comes along. He doesn't want to commit himself to going to one party just in case someone cooler plans something at the last minute. I've heard him when he asks a girl our. It's always "you and I should go and do something sometime." Or something like that. It took me awhile to figure out why he did that. If he doesn't set an actual date, he's always got someone he can call in case he doesn't have anything else planned for a Saturday night.

And his act with the teachers? That's to cover up that he doesn't really know the answer. It's totally uncool to study but equally uncool to look stupid in class. And since Derek's world would totally fall to pieces if he looked uncool, he has to joke his way out of it instead of just admitting that he doesn't know the answer.

And his hair? It definitely doesn't look like he just rolled out of bed when he rolls out of bed in the morning. That takes some work in front of the mirror to get it looking like that.

Derek Venturi

The most popular, laid back guy in school.

He makes it look like everything is so easy for him. No one, not even Sam, can see just how hard he works to make it that way. No one knows how hard he works to make sure the world sees him the way he wants it to see him. No one can see just how much other people's opinions matter to him.

Author's Note: This is the result of me staring at the ceiling when I can't sleep. I know I should be working on chapter four of The Place You're In and I'm almost done with that one, I swear. It was just a busy semester and I really needed to focus on that. Not that you care to read this, but here's a list of everything that kept me from updating quickly

1. Full time student

2. Spent 45 hours observing in a school half an hour away

3. 12 hour long days of class

4. Taught Spanish to a group of first graders

5. Applied for student teaching

6. Applied for travel abroad (still doing final stuff for that)

7. Summer class to finish teaching portfolio

8. Family stuff

So, as a birthday present to me. . . .

¡Leer y responder, por favor! (Read and review, please)


	2. Derek's Turn

Casey McDonald

Casey McDonald

Super keener to the extreme.

Everything about her is super keener to the extreme. She's so damn high stung about her grades. The minute she gets home from school, she runs right up to her bedroom to study like the good little keener she is. When she's not studying, she's off volunteering or serving on committees. Anything that'll look good on her university applications.

Even the way she dresses is way conservative. Her closet is full of button up blouses and sweater sets.

She's living the dream of almost every high school girl. For one thing, she's a cheerleader. I wasn't surprised when she decided to try out for the team. She'd try anything to be popular, and who's more popular than the cheerleaders? No one expected Klutzilla to make the team, especially since Max's ex-girlfriend was the captain. So no one was more surprised than me when she actually made the team.

She single handedly ruined the spot of cheerleading for me.

And if being a cheerleader isn't enough, Casey's boyfriend is the captain of the football team, the second most popular guy in school (second to yours truly, of course). What could be more sickeningly sweet than the captain of the football team dating the cheerleader? A captain-of-the-football-team-dating cheerleader with perfect grades which, of course, Casey has.

Casey has all of her teachers wrapped around her finger.

She's a suck up. She won't let anything stop her from being perfect. Well, she won't let anything stop her as long as it's honest. She won't lie to save her own ass. That's probably a good thing because she sucks at lying. She doesn't have to lie though, she's so honest. But none of that matters, because her teachers love her. She's always got the answer to their questions and is usually the first to volunteer when they need something.

Oh, and she was the freaking prom queen! I mean, it was a given that Max was gonna win king (everyone knew I wasn't gonna be there), but there's no rule that the king and queen have to be a couple so people actually voted for her.

From her very first day at school, Casey's been trying to be popular. I think she and Emily would do just about anything to be popular. They could barely hide the grins on their faces when it was socially acceptable for them to sit on the "cool stairs." Everything about her makes it seem like she cares what other people think of her. She was totally going to die of embarrassment when she tripped on the stairs and everyone started calling her Klutzilla and when she realized that she was a grade grubber.

But I know the truth. I'm not even sure she knows this about herself. Maybe it's something only a step-brother can see.

Casey doesn't give a damn about what anyone thinks.

If she did, there's no way in hell she would have tried out for cheerleading. Everyone thought she was crazy for trying that. But she wanted to do it so she went for it. That takes guts.

She ran for student council president even though Emily kept telling her that it would be social suicide. But she thought she could make a difference in the school so she did it anyway, social consequences be dammed. She wanted to save some other student from being the next Klutzilla (or whatever their nickname would be) so she gave a speech in front of the school about how much name calling hurts people. Well, she would have if Emily hadn't gotten Sam to talk her out of it. But knowing Casey, she'd have torpedoed herself if we hadn't stopped her.

She did everything she could to lose grade grubber rep., including working with me on a project. But when she found out that I needed the good grade, she threw all the work away and put her skills to good use to save my ass.

She does what she's going to do, despite what anyone else tells her. If she thinks it's the right thing to do, then she'll do it. High school is a vicious place and it takes a lot of strength and confidence to go against the grain. I don't think she even realizes she does it or knows how strong and self confident she really is.

She'll realize it eventually and when she does I'll be there to tell her I knew it the whole time.

**¡Leer y responder, por favor!**

**Thanks for reading! This may be the end of this drabble. I may do something for Lizzie/Edwin/Marti if the inspiration strikes.**


	3. Lizzie's Take On Things

Some days I want to strangle Derek, I really do

Some days I want to strangle Derek, I really do. Some days I swear he has it coming to him.

For one thing, he is probably the most self-centered person I know. It's always about him, about his reputation at school and what he wants. What Derek wants, Derek gets. And no one's allowed to stand in his way.

When Mom, Casey and I moved into the Venturi house, he wasted no time making sure we knew that it was his house. He set the rules and the rest of us just had to play by them. He let us knew that we were just there taking up his precious space.

I was so proud when Casey didn't just sit back and take it (like she ever would). Our very first week in the house she challenged Derek for his room and nearly managed to outsmart him. In fact, it's been nothing but one big battle of wills between Derek and Casey which, by extension, becomes MacDonald versus Venturi. Derek's not above stooping to cheating to win, especially if it looks like he may not get his way. Like when we were all competing for space in the house.

And he'll do anything to protect his reputation. He flat out denied that Casey was his stepsister! He just sat back and called her klutzilla along with the rest of the school! He's never even had to consider moving away from all his friends and starting over completely in a new and unforgiving school, but he didn't even try to sympathize with her. He just let everyone keep making her life a living hell.

But it's not just Casey and I that he treats so horribly. Just look at the way he treats Edwin and Marti. And they're his own flesh and blood! His siblings since the day they were born. He treats them like they were put on this earth to serve whatever purpose he needs them to. Edwin does his laundry and makes his lunch and finishes his homework for him. And Marti is basically his own person pack mule. Whenever he needs to move something, he just snaps his fingers for her to move it. I've seen him make Marti carry a bag that was bigger than she was!

The one time I remember Edwin standing up to Derek and refusing to do his bidding, he just passed the job onto Marti.

Where did Derek learn to be such a jerk? He certainly didn't learn it at home, that's for sure. Edwin managed to turn out alright. Edwin doesn't go out of his way to torture me like Derek does to Casey. Edwin doesn't do everything in his power to make my life miserable.

Like I said, some days I just want to strangle Derek. Some days he's really got it coming to him.

But the thing is, just when I'm about to haul off and deck him, he goes and does something sweet and, dare I say, compassionate. He does something just sweet enough to make me hold off for another week or so. That is one incredible self preservation instinct.

He did teach me how to play hockey, but that was because George assigned that as a punishment and then Derek wanted to win a bet with Casey. And of course there was the time he helped Casey pull off the lie to her science teacher. Of course, if he hadn't talked her into lying in the first place, she wouldn't have needed any help from the Lord of the Lies. Usually he's just doing something nice because he's trying to fix something he caused.

But I'm almost positive that he's done something out the of the goodness of his heart. There was the time that Casey was dating my soccer coach and Derek exposed his scheme to date all the sisters. But he kind of got to humiliate Casey in the process and he got a date out of it, so maybe that doesn't really count either. Though Edwin says otherwise. And he did eventually show up at the school's Fun Fair to help Mom out. That was cool. I don't think anyone had to threaten him in order to get him to show up. So that one definitely counts. I knew if I kept on babbling enough I'd come up with one.

So most days I want to strangle my step brother, but every once in a while he manages to do something to talk me out of it.

But one of these days he really will have it coming.

**Author's Note:** So what originally was a quick two-shot is gonna turn into a five-shot, mainly because people asked for more and you got me thinking (which is usually a dangerous thing, FYI).

I'm also looking for a LWD beta reader. I have an awesome one, but she's usually so busy that I feel bad adding more to her work load these days. I'd probably only need your services until September when I take a posting hiatus. Message me or something if you're interested.

Needless to say, this isn't betaed. It's barely even revised and probably riddled with typos.

¡Leer y Responder por favor!

--MM


	4. Edwin's Observations

Disclaimer: Not mine, never was, never will be

Disclaimer: Not mine, never was, never will be.

**Edwin**

Most of the time, like ninety nine percent of it, I'm glad that my dad married Nora. You'd have to be blind not to see how happy they make each other. Hell, even Derek and Casey managed to see it when they were fighting over Derek's room, and they are the two most self absorbed people in this house! You'd think that my dad and Nora would have moved past that newlywed honeymoon phase after two years of marriage but they're still as blissed out on each other as the day they walked down the aisle.

As sickening as it can be sometimes, none of us want to take that away from them. We've all gone through a messy divorce between our respective sets of parents. I still remember what it was like when my mom and dad were fighting non-stop which means that Derek definitely remembers. And I'm sure even Marti remembers bits and pieces. She may be a little kid still, but she's a hell of a lot more observant than anyone else in this house. I know that Casey has notebooks full of depressing poetry she wrote during Dennis and Nora's divorce (I didn't read it, I put it back after I realized what I'd found. I swear!) and Lizzie and I have spent a lot of time talking about our parents' divorces and we both agree that we don't wanna live through that again. So like I said before, us kids aren't going to complain about dad and Nora when they're being so sickeningly sweet.

So what about that other one percent of the time I'm not happy they found each other? No, I'm not secretly wishing that my dad and my mom were still together. I'm probably one of the only kids on the planet that doesn't wish that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not heartless or anything like that, but my mom was hardly ever home when they were married. She was always working. And when she did make it home for dinner, my dad was a little happier, sure. But the thing is, he's even happier with Nora. He gets this silly little grin on his face whenever he's thinking about her. And that grin? I've never seen anything like it on him before he met Nora, not even on the rare night my mom would make it home for dinner. So no, I couldn't be happier that my dad married Nora. But it's just that when Nora moved in with us, she brought Casey and Lizzie with her. Now I'm starting to sound heartless again, aren't I?

Crap.

I should probably explain, shouldn't I? I love Casey and Lizzie, I really do. And I would do anything for them. Somewhere along the line they stopped being step sisters and became my real sisters. I don't really remember the specifics about it but I remember that it happened in stages. At first, they were just my stepsisters. They weren't really a part of my family at that point. They were just two girls who were living in my house and using up all of the hot water in the morning. Somewhere along the line I dropped the "step" part and started telling everyone that they were like real sisters to me. I actually cared about what was going on in their lives. Now they're my sisters. They're no different from Marti in that way. Whenever anyone asks, I say that I've got three sisters. So obviously it's not them personally that I don't like.

So what's my problem with them living here? It's the relationship between them that gets to me. They have the kind of sibling relationship I thought existed solely on shows like The Brady Bunch or 7th Heaven. It certainly isn't anything like the sibling relationship that I have with Derek.

See, Casey wants what's best for Lizzie and Derek only cares about getting what's best for Derek. When Casey plots and schemes it's in Lizzie's own interest, like when she got Lizzie and Jamie to actually talk face to face about their feelings. When Derek plots and schemes, I'm usually a tool to use so he can get what he wants.

He uses me to do his dirty work. I can't tell you how many science projects and term papers I've written for him. Casey relies on Lizzie for her opinions. She actually cares about what her little sister thinks and takes her advice to heart. Derek relies on me for a quick cash advance or to make him lunch.

So yeah, I couldn't be happier that my dad found Nora. But it stings every once in a while to realize that my relationship with my brother isn't what it should be and that it took Casey and Lizzie moving in to show me that. At least my relationship with those two almost makes up what Derek and I don't have. Lizzie's my best friend while Casey usually asks the same from me as she does from Lizzie.

Like I've said before, they're my sisters.

¡Leer y Responder, Por Favor!

Well, there you have it. An update all the way from Spain. I've got Marti's chapter almost finished as well as the next chapter of The Place You're In (again, I got hit with writer's block when I realized that a future plot idea didn't work out in the context of the story and I needed another obstacle to cause problems).

I'd love to have those up sometime soon but I have a relatively inconsistent internet connection here. For example, I'm currently stealing a neighbor's wireless right now and here in Spain most people turn their routers off when they're not in use which means no internet for MM. Internet Cafes cost money and what little internet time I get at school is spent assuring my parents and friends that I will be coming home in December and that I'm not going to move here permanently. So hopefully in December I'll have a whole bunch of updates for everyone. Until then, thank you for your patience and I hope you understand.

And above all, thanks for reading!


	5. Marti's Say In The Matter

**Marti**

Growing up, we all had our roles to play. Casey was the uptight perfectionist who would always come through for you when you needed it most. I remember when Nora volunteered to plan the Fun Fair at the high school. Casey gave up the chance to go to a party with her new boyfriend and came to help out Nora instead. She was the one you could count on to do the right thing. Derek was her opposite in each and every way. Her Dramatic Foil if you will. He could always be counted on to do what was best for himself and he could usually be found anywhere other than where he was needed. Unless he was forced, of course. Like when he taught Lizzie how to play hockey. That was a punishment for getting dad's car towed or ticketed or something (give me a break, I was seven at the time!)

Edwin was the entrepreneur of the family. He was always trying to come up with one way to make money or another. It was always fun to see what he could come up with. And it was always good for a laugh. Especially watching him try to put his plans into action (like the time he invented his game about gas and immediately tried to hit Casey and Lizzie's dad up for a loan) or watching his plans fall apart (like when he and Lizzie tried to run a pet sitting business until we had an escaped lizard on our hands). But I think he suffered from Jan Brady Syndrome as well. You know, that whole middle child thing. He was always trying to fit in and stand out all at once. He wanted to fit in at school. I'm pretty sure he tried out for every athletic team possible in order to do that. In order to be popular and to get a girlfriend and anything else he wanted. And at the same time, he wanted to stand out at home. Didn't want to fall into the shadows of the rest of his siblings, especially Derek and Casey. Because let's face it, those two kind of have a way of stealing the whole show and making everything about themselves.

Lizzie was the environmentalist of the family, always trying to save the world by reducing one carbon footprint at a time. Like that week when she was so concerned about our family having such a high carbon footprint that she made up all these crazy rules like how Nora could only use her hair dryer once a week or how often we could all flush the toilet. Throughout high school, she was always organizing one fund raiser or another to raise money to save an endangered species. Unlike Edwin, Lizzie never cared how anyone at school saw her. She was always confident in who she was and she refused to change for anyone. If they had a problem with who she was, they could deal with it. Nor was she desperate to stand out at home. Hell, she grew up with Casey after all. But she sure as hell wasn't invisible, either. Lizzie had a way of making us all stand up and take notice when she wanted us to. Like that time when Casey and Derek were working on a video for a class assignment at the same time Lizzie was making a diorama of the rainforest. They kept ousting Lizzie from her workspaces and by the end of it, they'd managed to destroy her diorama. She was crushed, but she let them have it and made them feel so terrible about the way they treated her that they got the whole family to remake it for her.

And which role did I play in the family? The cute, oblivious baby of the family of course. At least according to Derek, Casey, Edwin and Lizzie I was. I spent a lot of my childhood off in my own little world pretending to be a cat or a princess (even then I was meant to be in theater!) so I guess that was synonymous with oblivious. Or maybe it was because I was so much younger than everybody else. Who really knows why they thought I was?

And you know what? So not true! I was not oblivious to what was going on around me growing up. Case in point: Scott. Years ago Casey was dating Lizzie's soccer coach and it turned out that he was dating three other girls at the same time. Everyone in the family liked him except me. I wanted him to go eat dinner in the garage.

It's easy to see everything when everyone around you thinks you're oblivious. They don't really try to hide anything in front of you. That's one of the advantaged to being "oblivious." Because of that, I also knew way more about my siblings than I was supposed to when we were growing up. And the first thing I learned was that no one in my family could see what was going on right in front of them.

For starters, Derek and Casey were totally in love with each other. Casey had Derek wrapped around her finger. She was practically the only person who could get Derek to do the right thing. Why else would he have shown up at the last minute to help out at the school's Fun Fair? And Derek would do anything to protect Casey. He was the one who found out that Scott was cheating on her and told her what was going on. And don't even get me started on their attempts to sabotage each other's relationships. Like when Casey purposely gave Derek the wrong information about the type of guys that Kendra liked or when Derek "taught" Casey the rules of football to help her impress Max.

At the same time, Edwin and Lizzie were falling for each other as well. Their attraction was a lot more subtle that Derek and Casey's and if you didn't know what you were looking for, you'd probably miss it. They were always there for each other when they needed it. He went with her to karate lessons (sacrificing his Saturday morning cartoon time) when dad and Nora couldn't go and she helped him out when he was being bullied at school. By the end of high school, these two were inseparable. I don't know how many nights they stayed up talking about where to go to college so they could both study what they wanted and still be together.

Growing up, we all had our roles to play. Casey was the good girl, Derek was the slacker, Edwin was the creative one while Lizzie was the activist. And I was oblivious. But no one really saw the way the lines blurred over the years we all spent growing up. Edwin was always right there to help Lizzie out on her Save The Whales campaigns while he could usually get her to go along with his own money making schemes. No one else saw how much Derek and Casey were fighting their attraction to each other until it was too late. Casey got Derek to care about his grades while he got her to loosen up and live a little bit. I saw just how much Derek admired Casey for her self-confidence and independence and just how well Casey got to know Derek. She's one of the few people who knows he even has a vulnerable side, let alone gets to see how insecure he really is sometimes.

And maybe someday they'll actually tell this to each other.

**Well, that's the end of this one! Thanks for reading! I've also got the next chapter of "The Place You're In" all planned out and partially written. Hopefully that'll be done soon too.**

**¡Leer y responder por favor!**

**--MM**


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